<p>Tanning still causes cancer, right? I didn’t miss an announcement by the Surgeon General or anything, did I? I figured out that D has been tanning, in spite of knowing full well she is not allowed to. I live with her. Did she not think I would notice she had changed color?</p>
<p>The problem is, when she says all her friends do it, it’s not teenage hyperbole. I know her friends. They all go tanning. What can all these parents be thinking? Some of these beautiful 17 & 18 yr old girls look like leather handbags already! Two girls in her larger circle actually work at tanning parlors–supporting their habits, I guess.</p>
<p>I agree it is a dangerous and terrible activity. It IS popular among teens and 20-somethings. Neither of my kids ever had any interest in it- one is a boy, and except for the body builders, most guys aren’t that interested. My daughter has better sense. To me it ranks up there with smoking.</p>
<p>I believe Austrailia has a new law restricting tanning to 18 and older.<br>
Melanoma is a frightening cancer (not that any cancer is not frightening).<br>
It’s very hard to get kids to understand the danger.</p>
<p>D2 tans right before we leave for spring break. I don’t love it as I kept her slathered in SPF 50 when she was younger but she has tanned last spring and this spring before vacation. It is very common around here for both boys and girls before spring break and prom.</p>
<p>I tan on the rare occasion I will be going to visit friends or family in California or Florida. 3-5 visits in a low wattage bed give me a small base color so I don’t look like a lobster after the first day on the beach, even using sunscreen. </p>
<p>D (college freshman) tanned 3 or 4 times over winter break. It was on her own dime, and she does know the danger of excessive tanning, but I have always preached the “everything in moderation” mantra. She just wanted to get a “bronze glow” as she called it before returning to school. It would not be something she would do any other time of the year than winter. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the salon when she went in, as she is bi-racial, and I am pretty sure in our nearly all white community they have not seen somebody like her come in to tan!</p>
<p>D is so pale that she says she exists in order to make other people feel tan. I’m very pale as well, and we’ve never gotten into the whole tanning thing, since we’d burn after just a few minutes no matter what. When we do go to the beach (where I stay under an umbrella) we are slathered in SPF50. Just have your Ds stand next to mine, and they won’t need to tan!</p>
<p>Not a fan of the tanning booth. My friend , whose father is a dermatologist likens it to a dose of radiation. It is NOT true that tanning in a bed is less harmful than actual sun exposure.
Also, a young woman who grew up near my hometown was diagnosed with malignant melanoma a few years back. She recently passed away at the age of 26.
If that isn’t enough to scare kids to stay away …</p>
<p>I sometimes read the online student newspaper of S2’s university . They have an anonymous section (called Rants) for student comments . I can’t tell you how many times there have been comments (obviously from male students) chastising all the bleach blonde “fake bakes” walking around campus looking very orange in the middle of winter. If the girls are doing this to impress the guys, it doesn’t seem to be working from what I have read.</p>
<p>Above headline from the British National Health service - no safe “tanning”.</p>
<p>Remember, the tan is caused by damage to your skin due to ultrviolet radiation. Use makeup, artificial tan and lots of sunscreen and other photo protection.</p>
<p>I kept fussing at 2 of my kids who did some tanning. As I was in dermatologist’s office with one of them, I asked him to please lecture on the effects of tanning. To my amazement he said it was fine the way my kids were doing it—only in late spring for a few weeks before going to beach/vacation. He said the ones who do and and burn (just like with the sun) and the ones who do it more than about 3 months of the year are the ones doing the damage. One child has “aged out” of it, the other still goes each April/May for a few weeks.</p>
<p>My D2 and her friends have a term for their friends who do this - “tanorexic”. … they don’t see how odd their skin tone has become, they just get darker and oranger…</p>
<p>It’s not a good thing. Tanning beds give you higher doses of UV in a shorter time frame, and the radiation is at a wavelength that doesn’t burn as much, so you get a much higher overall exposure.</p>
<p>well at least I don’t have that to worry about.
When D came back from Ghana- she was as white as when she left ( in winter)- she says she wants to have a more interesting death than from skin cancer!
Keeps her applying the sunscreen anyway.
( of course in Ghana- the dirt stuck to the sweat and lotion and without running water- it made a pretty good screen)</p>
<p>I wish I could shake some sense into all those who think tanning booths are nothing to worry about. The damage comes years later when the melanomas start showing up and the skin looks like leather. I grew up in Southern California as a teenager in the 70s. I am very fair skinned, blond hair, blue eyes, and burn easily. I routinely got sun burned very badly sunburned. Now, here I am at age 50 and I’ve already had three melanomas. I am constantly on the alert for more melanomas. I have a very good relationship with my dermatologist who I see every three months. I have no doubt I will have more melanomas in the future. My goal is to find them early. The worst part was watching my 29yr old brother die from melanoma. He had a wife and two small kids. It was tragic. I still miss hiim badly today even though he died over 20 years ago. Don’t use tanning booths. Wear hats. Put on sunscreen. Do your best to not get sunburned. See a dermatologist regularly, esp if you are in a higher risk group. It is not worth it. Melanoma will kill you.</p>
<p>I have one kid who would go to the tanning salon if she could afford it. When she lived at home I did not allow it. The exception was before prom which was on her dime. The thing about it is she does not need to go. She is naturally olive toned. She tans easily enough just by being outside. She rarely uses sunscreen except if she is going to the beach. I can hound her all I want but at this point she is on her own. She hates when she gets what she calls her green tone. She gets tired of people asking her if she is ill. She has figured out bronzer helps with that.
My other kids would love to not be so pale. They need to use sunscreen and even if they spent hours in a booth would not tan. Just more freckles. My son is obsessive about not getting skin cancer. My youngest loves to be in the water and she hates the constant reapplying but she also knows that a sunburn is painful and keeps her out of the water.</p>